Hari Masjid firing case: Centre not to hand over case

Mumbai, Apr 21 (UNI) The Centre today told the Bombay High Court that the controversial Hari Masjid firing case of 1993 cannot be handed over to the CBI.

Last week, the Union government had refused to hand over the probe of 1993 Hari Masjid firing case to the CBI, noting that no case could be made out against the police officer Nikhil Kapse and his team, who were currently investigating the case.

Additional Solicitor General Rajendra Raghuvanshi had on Thursday informed a division bench of Justice S B Mhase and Justice V K Tahilramani that the Centre was not willing for a CBI probe.

In a police firing inside Hari Masjid, 6 persons had died during the 1993 Mumbai communal riots.

Farookh Mhapkar, the petitioner, moved the court seeking CBI probe.

Justice B N Srikrishna, who headed the Srikrishna Commission, had said in the report that the firing by the police team led by Kapse (then a sub-inspector) was unjustified. But now the Union Home ministry has declined to transfer the case to the CBI, citing special task force's (STF) report that Kapse acted ''in performance of the duty''.

The Maharashtra government last month had sent a proposal to the Centre seeking transfer of the case (lodged by Mhapkar against Kapse and others) to the CBI.

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